Colton Underwood Initially Turned Down “Masked Singer” Because He Wasn't 'in a Good Place' After Coming Out (Exclusive)

The former Bachelor tells PEOPLE he "needed that time away" after his Netflix docuseries aired in December 2021 to "invest in myself" and "heal"

Colton Underwood brought the love to The Masked Singer as Lovebird.

Even though the former Bachelor, 32, got eliminated during Wednesday, April 10’s Transformers Night episode, Underwood tells PEOPLE he considers doing The Masked Singer “one of the best experiences of my life.”

“I've been offered [and] wanting to do it for a few years, but timing wise and for other reasons, it never worked out until this year,” Underwood says.

The former NFL played appeared on Becca Kufrin’s season of The Bachelorette in 2018 before taking the lead as the Bachelor the next year. In 2021, Underwood publicly came out as gay and went on to detail his journey in Netflix’s Coming Out Colton docuseries.

Related: 20 of the Wildest Rules You Didn't Know Contestants Have to Follow on 'The Masked Singer'

Underwood married Jordan C. Brown in May 2023, and now, the couple has started working towards welcoming a child together via surrogate. “The beautiful thing about family building is it's so intentional,” the Daddyhood podcast host says. “It's bonded Jordan and I like we never imagined.”

Below, the reality star tells PEOPLE about whether The Masked Singer ignited his competitive streak, if he plans to continue appearing on television and what he calls the "greatest honor" of his carer so far.

PEOPLE: In addition to timing, what kept you from saying “yes” to The Masked Singer previously?

COLTON UNDERWOOD: I don't think I was in a good place coming out of my Netflix show. I was still very much in my coming out process. I'm so glad that I waited because I felt like this was the best time for me to do something like this. It was so much fun.

Why did you pick the Lovebird costume?

The Lovebird and everything it stands for is symbolic in many obvious ways, but I think more so just with the love of finding self-acceptance with myself. The symbolism of that costume and what I went through from my late 20s to now and being on camera for the last eight years of my life. It was fun to let loose on that stage, let people in a little bit more and make a return to television.

How did it feel it performing under the mask?

It was hot, but I will say, I at least had some movement with mine and some breathing compared to some of the others. I was lucky that I sort of had a big shell in my bird body that I could move around a little bit and not be too hot in.

Did doing the show bring out your competitive side from your football days?

I actually thought I was going to be more competitive. It was interesting because normally if anybody would tell me I'm going on some sort of competition show, I'd be like, “I'm in it to win it.” With something like this, I was very much understanding my limits, what I was good at. I just wanted to have fun. I was like, “I'm not here to win this. I want to prove to myself that I could do something outside of my comfort zone.” And I feel like I didn't do half bad. It was a good time for me.

In your last clue package, you talked about the world getting to know you as someone you weren't initially. Do you feel like they have a better idea now?

I hope so. I think it's hard to go through and navigate a coming out experience and self-love in front of the public. I really did need the year that I took to myself to privately invest in myself, in my relationship, to heal. I just needed that time away. That's sort of my goal with Daddyhood and my return here is to reintroduce myself and just say, “Hey, I'm still somewhat of the same guy you met on Bachelor, but there's different parts of me.” That's been the beautiful thing about the coming out process: finding what parts of my life and what parts of me that I'm keeping and staying true to, and then how else am I growing and expanding and changing.

On The Masked Singer, you encouraged people not to hide who they are and to share themselves. Do you wish you embarked on your coming out journey sooner?

Of course I wish that I would've had it at an earlier age and I wouldn't have felt trapped from sports and religion and my desire to be a father. But I truly believe that I was on the path that I was on because I had to go through that to have my coming out. Now there's an opportunity for people to have somewhat of a blueprint of what I went through and possibly avoid some of the mistakes that I made while in the closet. I can always admit that I could handle things a lot better, but I had to go through what I went through. I try not to have a ton of regrets.

Related: The Masked Singer Season 11 Reveals: See All the Celebrities Who Have Been Unmasked

What does it mean to you that children who may feel like you did will be seeing you on The Masked Singer talking about your journey?

That's been the greatest honor of any project that I've ever done. With the Netflix show, every day I wake up and I have a new message from somewhere across the world saying that they just watched the documentary and it's helped them or it saved their life. And knowing that there's something like that out there to help was obviously the reason I ended up saying “yes” at the end of the day to film my coming out. And as invasive and as vulnerable as I had to be for that, I would do it over and over again because I see the messages and I see the struggle that a lot of men and women that were in similar positions as me get in and how they get there. That's something that I'll always be proud of.

Can we expect to see you doing more reality TV going forward?

We'll see. I definitely don't like to speak in definitives in my life anymore, but I love competition. I obviously love the entertainment landscape and the world that I've been in. I'm working on a lot of development and behind this camera operations right now, but I am up for whatever, and I'm excited to be making my return back in front of the camera.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.